Improvement in machines for cutting and assorting playing-cards



VICTOR-E. MAUGER: y V. 1 kImprovement in Machines for CuttingandAssorntmgjlggyg Cards, &c.

N0, 121,117; Patented Nov. 21,187 ujwvh PATENT OFFICE.

VICTOR E. MAIIGER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FUR CUTTING AND ASSUIITING PLAYING-CARDS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,117, dated November21, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VICTOR E. MAUGER, of the city, county, and State of.New York, have invented an Improved Apparatus for AutomaticallyAssorting Playing and other Cards, or pieces cut -om sheets 5 and I dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to makeand use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawingforming a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 represents avertical longitudinal section of my improved assorting-machine forstrips cut from sheets. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section of thesame taken on the plane of the line c c, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a verticallongitudinal section of the assorting-machine for cards cut from strips.Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section of the same taken on the planeof the line k k, Fig. 3.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

This invention has for its object to produce simple and effective meansfor asserting-that is to say, putting upon one another in regularorder-the several strips or pieces cut from strips. The invention is tobe more particularly applicable in the manufacture of playing-cards, butmay also be advantageously used for other matter.

Playing-cards are, by rotary knives, cut from large sheets, each sheetcontaining about thirty 0r more cards. Every sheet is first printed, andthen, by parallel incisions, cut into strips, each strip beingsubsequently cut up into as many cards as it contains. Vhen thus cutrapidly the cards of several sheets are apt to become mixed and those ofeach sheet liable to be indiscriminately arranged, making it difficultand laborious to assort them into packs 5 but by my invention the cardsof each sheet are to be regularly arranged and placed one upon anotherin desired succession, so that the entire labor of subsequent assertingwill be dispensed with.'

The invention consists chiey inthe use of a graduated plate, upon whichthe strips cut from sheets or the cards cut from strips are deposited,and in the use thereon of a sliding carriage or belt, which conveys eachhigher strip or card to the one next below it and places it on top, sothat finally all 4pieces will be one above another in regularsuccession. The invention also consists in the combination, with saidgraduated plate, of guide-chutes, which convey the several pieces,respectively, to the several steps of the plate.

In the accompanying drawing I have shown my invention applied to twomachines, one for assorting strips cut from sheets, the other forassorting cards cut from strips. It will be seen that the invention isidentical in either case, the only practical difference being in thecomparative proportions of parts.

In Figs. 1 and 2 is shown a machine for cutting cards into strips andassorting the latter. In this A represents the frame of the machine. B Bare the parallel shafts of the rotary cutters O C, by which the sheet iscut into six (more or less) strips of equal width and length. Thesestrips, as they emerge from between the shafts B, are deposited upon aninclined table, D, which, by means of projecting ribs a a, is dividedinto as many guide-chutes b b as there are spaces between the pairs ofcutters. Each strip is therefore deposited in a separate chute. E is agraduated plate, afxed to the frame A at the foot ofthe chute-table D.It has as many steps d d as there are chutes b b, (see Fig. 2,) one stepunder and in line with each chute. The strips cut from the sheet are bythe chutes guided to and iinally deposited upon the several steps of thegraduated plate E, respectively. An endless apron, F, or a slidingcarriage having a projectin'g finger, e, is moved so as to carry saidfinger along the graduated edge of the plate E or through a slot in saidplate with such effect that such iin ger will first push the strip onthe uppermost step of E off and deposit upon the strip on the adjoiningstep, then take the two strips on the latter and carry them to the stepnext below,- dtc., until finally all the strips have -been arranged inthe desired succession, when they fall from the inclined end of E into abox or receptacle, G. I have in Fig. l shown two aprons, F, one oneither side of the plate E, so

that by their fingers both ends of the strips may be pushed. The box G Iprefer to connect with rack and pinion or otherwise, in such manner thatit will be graduallyY fed downward as it becomes filled. The aprons orequivalent slides receive their motion from suitable mechanism. Figs. 3and 4 show similar cutters C C on shafts B, a similar or equivalentsystem of chutes, b b,

l on a table, D, and substantially the same graduated plate E at thefoot of the chute-table D; also a carriage, F, having a finger, e. Thestrips are taken from the box G to the cutters C', and by them cut intocards, which are in the chute carried upon the graduated plate anddeposited on the steps of the same, the sliding nger then causing themto be placed one above the other in proper succession, and iinally to bedischarged into a suitable receptacle.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patentl. The graduated plate E, applied to a cuttingmachineto receive on its several steps the pieces, respectively, that are cutfrom a sheet or strip, as specified.

2. The sliding ringer or fingers e, applied to the graduated plate E forconveying` the strips, cards, or pieces deposited thereon from thehigher Witnesses:

W. PRENTIss WEBSTER, AUGUsTUs GLAEsER.

